thanks for your prompt answer. I have tried to peruse what u suggested I do thru the link u have provided, but all I was able to make use of (thru the meanders of the conversation and debate) was ... the read-between-the-lines suggestion to do without all the ar-sa, it-it etc. language subdirectories in the various inside and outside boot folders, whose deletion apparently resulted in saving some space and time in rebooting the system. My system here is wimboot (bios+mbr). I also have it on an asus transformer t100 tablet pc which is uefi+gpt and I think it does support csm, if u consider that I am able to see the initial bootmenu (bootloader and vhd options). I sorta can get hold of the boot process thru bootice. is there any setting that I can use to try ramloading there as well as I do on my usual mbr system, which I am typing from?

Well done Erwan. Looks like not all SAN Targets are equal. I had incorrectly assumed that as the SAN Target disk was accessible then it was a Windows setup issue.

As you appear to be in the mood for testing Now that you have a working setup are you able to check whether setup completes if the SAN Target disk is manually partitioned + install.wim applied manually + bcdboot used to create boot files?

I'll have to look into obtaining a Starwind again.

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...I have tried to peruse what u suggested I do thru the link u have provided, but all I was able to make use of (thru the meanders of the conversation and debate)...

The topic I linked to is about installing Grub4dos code to a GPT disk so that a dual boot type setup can be achieved. UEFI only mode - UEFI boot loader is executed. Change Firmware settings enable CSM and boot in Legacy mode and Grub4Dos is executed. It's probably not what you were looking for, but may give you some ideas.

...My system here is wimboot (bios+mbr)....

The iPXE wimboot? Or the Windows wimboot using wof(adk).sys? Or something else - e.g. booting a WinPE/WinRE .wim file

...asus transformer t100 tablet pc which is uefi+gpt and I think it does support csm, if u consider that I am able to see the initial bootmenu (bootloader and vhd options)....

If you are referring to a Windows boot menu (displaying the contents of a BCD store) being displayed, then you will see an initial bootmenu whether you are booting in UEFI or Legacy/BIOS mode.

If I'm honest, it may not be possible to do what you want at the moment, however I'm still not sure what you are trying to achieve as a lot of guesswork is currently involved. More information would be useful. Unless Wonko is willing to use the crystal/glass ball he often refers to

Well done Erwan. Looks like not all SAN Targets are equal. I had incorrectly assumed that as the SAN Target disk was accessible then it was a Windows setup issue.

As you appear to be in the mood for testing Now that you have a working setup are you able to check whether setup completes if the SAN Target disk is manually partitioned + install.wim applied manually + bcdboot used to create boot files?

I'll have to look into obtaining a Starwind again.

Hi Misty,

As I failed on diskpart in my test#3, would you be able to provide me your diskpart "script" ?

NO, that is what erwan.l is experimenting, about the issue that Misty started this topic about.

Title: SANBOOT Windows on UEFI system?

Why INSTEAD of insisting of initiating here a conversation on your questions that are TOTALLY UNRELATED to this topic you don't start a NEW topic aptly titled to ask your questions (and hopefully have some meaningful answers)?

If you prefer:

sorry to butt in probably inappropriately, but as I saw UEFI somewhere here, I was just wondering could I ask any of u whether rambooting in uefi+gpt environment is possible or not and, if it is, how would I do so.
nino

Yes, it is definitely inappropriate , but it's ok (once) if you insist on it, it may soon become a form of nuisance

After applying the esd file and rebooting i end up with "innaccessible boot device" (a windows message).

Sanboot registers the disk and I can see logs in starwind but it fails shortly after as if bootmgr was not happy with my disk and/or partitioning : i am pretty sure we are not partitioning correctly here (since it works fine when using the default windows setup).

In MBR mode, i would run bootsect but with UEFI i am not so sure? thoughts?

Also, while running bcdboot I was not too sure if I should use the 1st (EFI) part or the second system part as destination so I ran both : bcdboot s:\windows /s r: /f UEFI and bcdboot s:\windows /s r: /f UEFI

EDIT : not working so far.After applying the esd file and rebooting i end up with "innaccessible boot device".

Bugger

Sanboot registers the disk and I can see logs in starwind but it fails shortly after as if sanboot was not happy with my disk and/or partitioning : i am pretty sure we are not partitioning correctly here (since it works fine when using the default windows setup).

Windows setup only partially works as none of the Windows versions I have tested have created an EFI system partition.

In MBR mode, i would run bootsect but with UEFI i am not so sure? thoughts?

I've not used it for years. And only for VBR, which it should still be able to modify on UEFI.

Also, while running bcdboot I was not too sure if I should use the 1st (EFI) part or the second system part as destination so I ran both : bcdboot s:\windows /s r: /f UEFI and bcdboot s:\windows /s r: /f UEFI

Both bcdboot commands are the same. I'm assuming one is a typo. Your command should work.

I really appreciate you trying. BTW, how did you IRL go last night?

Now on to my trials and tribulations.

I've had a very frustrating day. Getting Starwind 8 working has involved a lot of work as the GUI is only partially active in the FREE version and powershell scripts are required.

I got it working, but the second stage of Windows setup failed. I can't remember if I used setup or applied install.wim. I've done so many test over the past few days that I'm getting confused

I tried Starwind 5. Installed Windows 8.1 Update. Stage 2 appeared to boot, however I couldn't see what was going on as the display was distorted - I'll try and upload a picture later to show you. Tried again with Windows 10 (1903) - same issue with the screen being distorted.

One part being the EFI (aka system) one, the other being the windows (aka basic_data) one.

I believe it should be the system one.

About

Sanboot registers the disk and I can see logs in starwind but it fails shortly after as if sanboot was not happy with my disk and/or partitioning : i am pretty sure we are not partitioning correctly here (since it works fine when using the default windows setup).

Windows setup only partially works as none of the Windows versions I have tested have created an EFI system partition.

You are right : sanboot is not the issue, this is the windows failing probably due to a wrong (manual) partition scheme.

Currently retrying (TEST #6) but this time using Wimb diskpart script (here).

I stick to starwind 5.0 free edition for now but i am pretty sure latest edition (starwind san free) is all fine.

Side note : I had contacted them to let them now that I was doing them as lots of good publicity (one example here) and would "enjoy" a complete version but failed to convince

My "IRL" meeting went nice and I had a nice and tasty belgium beer on a nice terasse with Noel as the kind of senior guys we are did comment on our IT world today vs yesterday

Not sure if it mattes but worth mentionning, I am using an old win10 image i.E 1703 from July 2017.

This is one of the issues with the Windows as a service model. There are too many bloody builds. I think we are now on the eighth RTM release of Windows 10. I have been testing Windows 8.1 throughout today. In my next tests I'll use the same 1703 build as you. Well probably not exactly the same, but the same build number.

You are right : sanboot is not the issue, this is the windows failing probably due to a wrong (manual) partition scheme.

Possibly. In my opinion the Microsoft recommendation can be ignored. MSR recommendation has changed depending on the windows version and EFI only really needs to hold the EFI boot files - around 25 MiB if created by bcdboot on my system.

Currently retrying (TEST #6) but this time using Wimb diskpart script (here).

Won't hurt to try - other than the lost time.

I stick to starwind 5.0 free edition for now but i am pretty sure latest edition (starwind san free) is all fine.Side note : I had contacted them to let them now that I was doing them as lots of good publicity (one example here) and would "enjoy" a complete version but failed to convince

If you don't ask, you don't get. Shame it didn't work.

My "IRL" meeting went nice and I had a nice and tasty belgium beer on a nice terasse with Noel as the kind of senior guys we are did comment on our IT world today vs yesterday

I hope the senior comment is not about age and is about time in the field. I believe that you and I are around the same age Erwan.

Glad you enjoyed the IRL visit and the beer. I do love a nice belgium beer.

Misty

P.s. Using a different PC (a Thinkpad T440) with Starwind 5.2 resulted in the same distorted display. I'm out of ideas and very tired, so I will be taking a break for now.

@ErwanWhat are you doing to resolve the missing EFI partition following stage 1 of Windows setup? I've been booting into WinPE and selecting and shrinking the target disk > create and formatting EFI partition in the newly created space > running bcdboot.

@Erwan
What are you doing to resolve the missing EFI partition following stage 1 of Windows setup? I've been booting into WinPE and selecting and shrinking the target disk > create and formatting EFI partition in the newly created space > running bcdboot.

Are you following a similar process?

I believe this is where our process goes wrong when we go the manual route.

I am currently redoing a default installation and will carefully look at how partitions are created in order to redo it manually as close as possible as the original partitioning.